Review on Tma (Plagarism)

Hi everyone,

I have been doing the child development module with the open university for the last eights months.The exam is in 2 weeks time, i just received my last tma back with a zero grade from my tutor. The assessment said that it was a temporary mark and is under review. Essentially i did my tma at the last minute and used a report that was similar from a online source and paraphrased. I had received good marks up until that point and was not dependent on my last time for my overall result. I know it bad practice and could give a million excuse for why i did it1 but i did it in the heat of the moment! when i looked back over it the paraphrasing of the corrected document it very apparent and inescapable that it was influence by another source.

Obviously, now i am a state! This is my first time back to higher education in years, and my first course with the OU. I have looked at their code of practice and it very ambigeous. Those any one out their in cyber land now how severe the OU are when it come to first time offences in plagarism? I don't know whether i am going to fail the module or be prevented from further study with the OU, all because of my own stupidity!

Reply 1

Piko_Piko

I've know life gets busy and the coursework deadlines can be stressful, but it's hard to have any sympathy.
I'm doing an OU degree, albeit in my 3rd year (of 6, part-time study).
Everyone on my course earlier this year had part of their coursework given no mark, and the average taken from the other questions, due to some people using the internet to cheat. I got a lower mark than I should have, as I did well on that section.
So, given I was penalised for not having cheated, I think the penalty for you will be pretty harsh. Well it should be anyway.

Open University

Milton Keynes

Reply 2

hmm_what?

Original post by michealbt

You'll probably get a restricted grade and a slap on the wrist but as Piko_Piko said there's no sympathy for you.

Reply 3

michealbt

Yeah it probably will be, i don't expect them to see it from my perspective.... I just want to know, so i can accept my punishment and move on...

Reply 4

hmm_what?

Original post by michealbt

Yeah it probably will be, i don't expect them to see it from my perspective.... I just want to know, so i can accept my punishment and move on...

FWIW if it's your first offence I hope they're lenient.

Reply 5

Nitebot

You'll be ok. You're new and other work was fine. And let's be honest, there's probably quite a few OU students who are getting more than acceptable outside help with their TMAs from knowledgeable acquaintances so don't feel that you're the only offender.

Worth remembering though that just about all online academic reports and sample essays/dissertations etc are registered with plagiarism detection systems so it's now easy for lecturers to tell that you've been over reliant on a source.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 6

michealbt

I have no idea what to expect.... a restricted grade seems like wishful thinking!

Reply 7

michealbt

ok, so no word back from tutor about my assignment. Is there any ou student out there that has experienced getting caught with a assignment that was plagarised, and if so what was the outcome?... the wait is killing me!

Reply 8

Dubstepper

You know plagarism is like a serious thing and you can be convicted for it right?

I'm sure the OU won't be that harsh.

I always assumed from what i've read from my course books that we can only OU material to use for references etc. Unless its from a video hosted on a different site such as youtube.

Lets just hope they leave it at a 0 grade.

Reply 9

minnieuk

Original post by Dubstepper

No need to scare the poor OP anymore than they are already. Plagarism is only an offence if the material is published in the public domain - so it's not going to happen in this case. That's not to say it isn't a very serious offence to plagiarise in university essays - it is - and they all take it very seriously.

It's perfectly acceptable to use materials from outside the OU materials as long as they are properly referenced - as indeed should any material be that is from the course materials.

The most likely outcome - as this appears to be a first offence - is that the OP will get a 0 and a warning that if it happens again he will be removed from the course (ie. failed). I actually had someone on one of my courses with the OU chucked off for plagiarism - we weren't told the details but we were told that it was a second offence on the same course and that he/she was no longer allowed to register for any further OU courses.

So, although you've been told the 0 is a temporary result it is likely, in my opinion, to be the final results plus a written warning on what will happen if you do it again. Unless you hear otherwise, you should go ahead and take the exam as planned - assuming you can still pass the course with the 0 essay result.